In our discussion on what the writer of Hebrews calls “milk” we’ve looked at Repenting from Evil Deeds and Placing our Faith in God. In this post we’ll look at Baptisms in the Bible. There are 8 Baptisms in the Bible, but I see that only three are applicable for us…
- The Baptism of John-Repentance (Matt. 3:6-11)
- The Baptism of Jesus-Righteousness (Matt. 3:15, Acts 10:38)
- The Baptism of Fire-Purifying (Mt. 3:11)or judgment (Mt.25:41)
- The Baptism of Moses-Deliverance of the nation Israel (1 Cor. 10:1,2)
- The Baptism of the Cup-The suffering of death for our sins (Mark 10: 38)
- The Baptism of the Holy Spirit-Empowered to be witnesses (Acts 1:5)
- The Believers Baptism-Identification with Christ by water baptism.(Mk.16:16, Rom.6:4)
- The Baptism of the Dead-?(1 Cor.15:29)
Let’s look at the three that I see affecting us today.
The Believers Baptism
I practice full immersion baptism. It symbolizes our death in Jesus and the resurrection to new life. Half a baptism is a funeral. It symbolic of putting on new clothes and washing clean of the sin. It’s an outward sign of what’s already happened inwardly. If you’re a follower of Christ, you need to be baptized. Talk to your pastor today. I don’t think you need a pastor to baptize you, any follower of Christ can do it, you pastor is usually the one who knows where and when you can do it…it’s not always easy to find a big enough hot tub.
Too many Christians don’t get baptized because their embarrassed about not being baptized when they first became a Christian. Get over it. If you haven’t been baptized and your church tradition is to baptize believers, get baptized now!
BTW…It doesn’t matter if you’ve been sprinkled or dunked, if it doesn’t make a difference in your life you just got wet.
The Baptism in the Spirit
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is an experience subsequent to salvation. Which means when you ask Jesus to be Lord of your life, one second later you can have it. It empowers us first with boldness then with power to move in the supernatural gifts. It’s for the encouragement of the Church. It’s for the expansion of the Kingdom. It’s for the betterment of ourselves. You need the power of the Holy Spirit, you need the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The Baptism of Fire
I’m going to mention the baptism of fire because no one ever mentioned it to me and when I experienced it, I wish I knew a little bit more about it. The Bible talks about two different types of the Baptism of fire.
- A baptism of judgement. When Jesus comes back to judge the living and dead He will baptize with fire. It’s a baptism of judgement. It’s not for us who are redeemed.
- A baptism of purification. John said, there is one coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. That’s the baptism of purification. I understand God is good, He’s in a good mood and He loves me…but that fire is one that really hurts. It’s a good pain. I can’t explain it more except in my case it’s been physical and I could often smell burning flesh. I can’t create a theology around this but I will say, the closer you get to God, the greater the likely hood you’ll go through the baptism of fire. He’s going to make you clean.
Next time in our discussion of the milk of the Word we’ll look at the laying on of hands.
What’s been your experience with Baptism? Do you have anything you can add?
I enjoy your comments and know this one can be controversial.
photo credit: kozumel
